Ervin C. Palmer and Gloria M. Palmer, Husband and Wife, and Tim Palmer v. Roosevelt Lake Log Owners Association, Inc.

This appeal raises the question whether an alleged restraint placed on log salvaging on Roosevelt Lake in the state of Washington has a sufficient connection to interstate commerce to satisfy the jurisdictional requirements of the Sherman Act.

I.

The plaintiffs-appellants, Ervin and Gloria Palmer and their son, Tim, brought this private antitrust suit against defendants-appellees, the Roosevelt Lake Log Owners Association, various member companies of the Association, and a navigation company engaged by the Association to retrieve stray logs on Roosevelt Lake. The plaintiffs ran a small family business consisting of retrieving stray logs that were allegedly lost and abandoned on Roosevelt Lake while being transported by the timber companies to local lumber mills. The Roosevelt Lake Log Owners Association is an association of timber companies with logging interests on Roosevelt Lake.

The plaintiffs’ complaint asserts that the defendants sought to restrain trade in the “gathering, transporting, storing and sale” of abandoned logs on Roosevelt Lake in violation of §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1-2 , and corresponding Washington statutes, Wash.Rev. Code §§ 19.86.-030;…